Chapter Six

Dominic

Shit.

Fuck.

Fuck !

What the fuck was I doing? But, God-fucking-damnit, the second my arms were around Annie, they locked and there was no way I could let go, even if I wanted to. I didn’t want to. This woman belonged right where she was. In my arms. And, by God, that was where she was gonna stay.

She relaxed in my hold, inhaling a breath, then letting it out with a contented sigh. I thought she might push away or try to get free, but she actually curled her little hands into my shirt and clung to me. Also, I thought she might be sniffing my chest.

“Mmmm…” Annie moaned, her hot breath heating the skin beneath my T-shirt. She turned her head and inhaled again, this time not even trying to hide what she was doing. She buried her nose against my chest and moaned again. This time with feeling.

“Christ,” I bit out, my arms tightening around her without my consent even more. “You can’t make noises like that, girl.”

My words had the effect of throwing a glass of water in her face. Annie jerked, then looked up at me in shock. Her face blossomed with two spots of color on her cheeks, then a red flush crept from her neck to the roots of her hair. Sweat sparkled on her upper lip.

She stumbled backward and would have fallen on her ass, but I lunged for her without thinking. Again, she was plastered against me, but instead of that glorious desire on her face, now there was wariness and a hit of fear. We stared at each other. I knew I needed to make sure she had her balance, then let her go, but I couldn’t. I thought I might be able to let her go if she pushed away again, but the jury was still out on that.

“I-I…” She cleared her throat. Her hands were on my shoulders, and she alternated between curling her fingers into my muscles and relaxing her grip so it ended up feeling like she was kneading like a kitten.

The urge to grin was strong, but I didn’t feel much like smiling. I felt the need to wrap her up again and make it clear to her she was never to push away from me again. I needed her close. Insane. I was going insane. It was the only explanation for these feelings swirling inside me. I let her go once I was certain she had her balance, but it was fucking hard. “It’s all right, honey. Come on. Let’s sit on the love seat and talk. Want something to drink?”

She nodded her head a couple times. “Water.” Her voice was rough. She was obviously overloaded and I wasn’t sure how off balance I could push her. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel like she didn’t have choices.

I nodded to the love seat. “Go. Sit. I’ll be right there.” She didn’t answer out loud, but nodded and did as I told her.

I came back with a bottle of water for her and a beer for me. She took the bottle with a small smile. Not surprisingly, she sat in one corner as far away from me as she could get. She’d snagged one of the pillows Calista had brought to make the room seem more welcoming. Now that I thought about it, there had been pillows and shit in the living room too. What the fuck did my place need to be welcoming for? I hated people in my space. Except I was afraid I would hate it if Annie wasn’t in my space.

“I’m sorry. I know I’m a freak. I don’t act right in front of people.”

That was odd. “Not sure I understand, honey.” I sat on the opposite end of the love seat, but I reached out to her, holding my hand palm up to see if she’d take it. Surprisingly, she did. She looked at it indecisively for several seconds, but with a look of longing so profound it gave me a visceral response. My chest tightened and there was a lump in my throat for this girl. She’d obviously been through something. It sounded like she’d been part of a gang or something. Maybe even a cult. Somehow, I needed to convince her I was worthy of her trust. That I would protect her and never betray her in any way.

“You know, I’m sorry about earlier.” When I gave her a confused look she added, “Asking about the woman in the picture. Tina.”

“Nothin’ to be sorry about. I never thought of anyone asking. Which was stupid. You see a younger me with a woman and you’re genuinely curious.”

“I can make it up to you by telling you what happened. It’s only right you know anyway since you opened your home to me.”

“Only if you want to, honey. Ain’t gonna lie and say I’m not curious, but only to know how likely it is someone’s lookin’ for you. My job in this club is to keep everyone safe. The more information I have, the easier it is to do that job.” That was strictly the truth, but the fact was, I wanted to know what happened so I knew exactly who I had to kill to punish whoever had hurt Annie.

She nodded. “That makes sense.”

“We’ve got all night, Annie. Talk about anything you want.”

“Well, when I met Venus, I was in a camp with my mother.”

“I see. Did you always live there?”

“Since I was four. It was our home. I don’t really remember anything in my life before we moved there, at least, not more than flashes of playing on a playground with other kids or something. When Venus helped me out, she called the place a cult. I’ve read up on cults in the last couple of weeks. It seems she was right.”

“Sounds about what I was thinking. What kind of cult?” It was very hard to keep my voice neutral. If she didn’t remember living anywhere else, then Annie truly was in culture shock. It also explained her issues with time and social awkwardness.

“It’s called Grace of the Divine. Our leader is supposed to be the voice of God, but even being raised there, I had my doubts. I don’t think I was a very good cult member.”

“Honey, trust me when I say that’s a very good thing.”

She eked out a small smile. “Thank goodness, because I thought I was going crazy.”

“Most cults have oppressive rules. They’re designed to keep you too busy to think and to keep you powerless. If you didn’t want a better life, you wouldn’t be human. Everyone questions things that make us suffer. You were right to have doubts.”

“No one there thought so. At least, not many. And those of us who questioned them were kept strictly isolated. They called it reconditioning, but what it was really was punishment until you came around to their way of thinking.” She gripped my hand, adding the other one to it and nervously squeezing.

She continued. “When a girl turned sixteen, they were supposed to be married off to one of the men in the church family. No one wanted me because I was too spirited. That’s how they put it. I was too much work to keep in line. So they sent me for reconditioning. The process usually lasts less than a couple months. Not even that long most of the time. When the church elders are finished with the women they recondition, they come out docile and compliant.”

“How long’d you stay?”

She winced. “Um, well, a couple of years?”

I raised my eyebrows. “A couple of years ?”

“Yeah. I’m kind of stubborn.” She said that last very softly, as if ashamed to admit it, but also owning it proudly.

“Ain’t we all, girl.” I tried for a chuckle, but it sounded strained even to myself. This woman… She was breaking my fucking heart. “Is that when Venus found you?”

“Yes. I was making a break for it. I’d gotten out of the wooden box they had me in, but I was so weak from lack of food and water I couldn’t scale the fence. I was so frustrated and close to despair that I’d come so far only to be stopped by my own body. That’s when Venus found me.”

The girl dropped that like it was nothing. She’d managed to get out of the wooden box they’d put her in. Fucking Christ!

“She was in a pink car, sitting on the side of the road. The second I approached the fence, she hurried toward me. I hadn’t been able to get more than one step above the ground before my strength gave out. Venus cut a hole in the fence and helped me out just before one of the brothers grabbed me.

“He followed us through the fence, but Venus snapped his neck like she did that kind of thing every day.”

“You’d probably be surprised at how accurate that assessment is, but please, continue.”

She grinned. “Yeah. She told me she was a trained assassin. I had to ask her what it meant. It’s a little terrifying, but Venus isn’t a bad person. If she was, she wouldn’t have helped me. Not many of the family ever leave the compound, but apparently one of them caught her attention with something he said or did, and she went to investigate. That’s when she learned about me. She was trying to work out how to break me out when I broke myself out.”

“Now, that sounds exactly like Venus. What pushed you to make the move when you did? I mean, besides the obvious living conditions.”

“The Divine One told me he was tired of waiting for me to be reconditioned. He said he was going to use more extreme measures to bring me to heel. He was taking me as his next wife. And he was going to do the ceremony in front of the whole church.”

“I’m not even going to ask what that entails because I’m pretty sure I know. Tell me you escaped before he went through with that ritual.”

“I did. Thanks to Venus.”

I wasn’t sure she was doing it on purpose so much as it was a nervous habit, but Annie stroked and explored my hand absently while she relayed her experience to me. Almost like touching me was giving her some kind of comfort. Well, if that were the case, she could do whatever she needed because it sounded like this woman had been through a lot. The fact she could be around a man at all was surprising, let alone be able to touch one.

Before I could think too much about what to say to her next, I spoke. “I met Tina when I was a lot younger. My job meant I was in and out of her life more than a partner should be, because of that and other things, we never made our relationship permanent. In fact, we were only together a couple months before I left her. She knew why. My job, even when I first started in the military, was always very high risk. More than normal because of the type of work I did for the military and the CIA. I didn’t want to leave her widowed the first time I left and that was a very real possibility. She didn’t tell me she was pregnant when I explained to her why I had to leave, but I’m pretty sure she was. It was maybe eighteen months when she sent me the first baby picture with a letter explaining everything in detail.” I couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips as I remembered the pictures and, sometimes, letters that followed. “She would write to me about milestones Calista passed, and describe to me everything she could remember as clearly and distinctly as she could. She understood why I stayed away, but wanted me to be part of Calista’s life the only way she could. It wasn’t until me and Calista talked about Tina after Calista came here that I realized how much I’d truly loved Tina. And I’d only known her for two months.”

“So she was your one true love.” Annie smiled and sniffed as she stood. “That’s a really sad, beautiful story, Dominic.”

“Just Dom, baby. It’s my road name and what everyone calls me.”

“Dom. Got it.” She shifted in her seat, toeing at the rug beneath the love seat a little before catching herself and sitting perfectly still for several seconds. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a proper shower. We didn’t have them at the camp, but it’s something I’ve grown to depend on. I like feeling clean. Also, I love shampoo that I didn’t have to make myself. And conditioner. It makes the tangles not as bad.”

I had the crazy urge to laugh, but simply nodded as solemnly as I could manage. “I could see how those would be things you’d get used to pretty fast.”

“I especially love the hot water part of the shower.”

There was no way to contain the chuckle that time. “Yeah, baby. I like that part too. A cold shower is not on my list of favorite things. Not sure I know anyone who particularly likes them.”

“Also, you should know that if I ramble or say or do the wrong thing sometimes, I’m not trying to make you look bad for associating with the weird girl, or to look deliberately stupid. Piston says I don’t understand social cues. I’m not really sure what that means, but if it’s a way of saying I sometimes make things really awkward or uncomfortable, he’s not wrong.” She gave me a pleading look. “Please be patient with me? Don’t kick me out or anything.” God, she sounded so fucking vulnerable. Like she fully expected I’d kick her out if she did or said the wrong thing. I think this was the moment I decided I was gonna kill someone. The only question was who and how many.

“Ain’t ever gonna kick you out, girl.” Emotion threatened to close my throat, making my words gruff and tight. My feelings were all over the fucking place. Probably a combination of telling this young woman about Tina and my own struggle to come to terms with how I felt about Tina. And the way my heart was trying to feel about Annie. And no. I didn’t want to feel anything other than possibly sympathy or the protectiveness I feel with all the women in the compound. This whole thing where I threw a bikini contest just to find out her first and last name wasn’t something I was ready to touch yet. Because something inside me had latched on to Annie Warren. I wasn’t certain I’d ever figure out how to unweave those invisible threads trying to bind us together. Worse? I wasn’t certain I wanted to.